Gardaí deploy armed units as feud intensifies
The notorious fighting between the Keane Collopy and Ryan McCarthy Dundon gangs saw a 16-year-old boy wounded in one gun attack on Thursday night.
The widows of two murdered gang leaders on opposing sides have also been singled out in shootings in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The latest outbreak of violence is believed to have been sparked by an attack last Sunday on the home of the widow of murdered crime boss Kieran Keane. Shots were fired at her car parked outside her house in Garryowen.
Yesterday, the home of the widow of murdered gang leader Eddie Ryan was shot at.
And a house in the Caherdavin area was attacked with a grenade-like device. It did not detonate and the army bomb disposal unit based in Cork was sent to Limerick to decommission the explosive.
Chief Superintendent Willie Keane said: “We are very concerned and we are reviewing the level of armed patrols we have on duty in the city.”
The attack on the home of Mary Ryan at Hogan Avenue, Kileely, is seen as a reprisal for the gun attack on the car of Sophie Keane, widow of Kieran Keane, last Sunday.
Kieran Keane was one of the two gunmen who shot Mary Ryan’s husband, Eddie, dead in the Moose Bar in November 2000.
Kieran Keane was abducted and shot dead in January 2003 as a reprisal for the murder of Eddie Ryan.
On the night of his murder, the two sons of Eddie Ryan, Eddie Jnr, 20 and Kieran, walked into a garda station in Portlaoise after claiming they had been kidnapped on the night of January 23, 2003.
The youth who was wounded in the latest attacks was shot in the leg in a drive-by shooting in Southill at around 11pm on Thursday night.
A spokesperson for the Mid-Western Regional Hospital said last night his condition was critical but stable. His condition had improved and he had been moved from the intensive care unit to the high dependency unit.
Supt Frank O’Brien said: “A significant number of shots were fired which would indicate that a semi- automatic weapon was used. The car used by the gunman was found burned out in Annacotty.”
The teenager who was shot is a known associate of the McCarthy Dundon gang, who are aligned to the Ryan gang in the bloody feud with the Keane Collopy gang based in St Mary’s Park.
The home of ‘Fat John’ McCarthy, a Ryan associate, was also shot at in yesterday’s outbreak of violence.
He narrowly escaped death four years ago when the front of his house was sprayed with bullets by a gunman using a powerful Kalashnikov assault rifle.
A number of people, including children, were sitting at the front of the house on a summer evening.
The gunman and the driver of the car he fired from were subsequently jailed for 12 years.
Gardaí said there has been a noticeable rise in tensions in the city in recent weeks with sporadic shooting incidents.
Shots fired at the front of Sophie Keane’s home in Garryowen. She is the widow of gang boss Kieran Keane who was murdered by the Ryan McCarthy Dundon gang in January 2003. Kieran Keane was suspected of being one of the gunmen who shot gang leader Eddie Ryan to death in November 2000.
Youth aged 16 shot in drive-by shooting in Southill. His sister is the partner of one of the McCarthy Dundon gang.
Shots fired into the Kileelly home of Mary Ryan, widow of Eddie Ryan.
Shots fired into the home of ‘Fat John’ McCarthy in Moyross. He is a close friend of the Ryan family and escaped death in 2002 when his house was sprayed with bullets.
A grenade is thrown through the front window of a house in Caherdavin. Fortunately it fails to detonate. Houses in the area evacuated as a bomb squad disarm the device.
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